Remember the cute and ground-breaking collaborative robots that pioneered the space—Baxter and Sawyer? I wrote about Rethink Robotics in March and November of 2015. The company closed in 2018 0r 2019 and many employees wound up at Universal Robotics. The company’s assets wound up in Germany at the HAHN group.

Time has passed. The market blossomed and then consolidated. There will be some news at the upcoming IMTS in Chicago in a couple of weeks. I won’t be there deciding instead to go to a more deeply engineering conference.

Well, IMTS 2024 will witness the rebirth of rethink. The press release states:

Rethink Robotics returns to IMTS with a major company relaunch and rebranding. With a fresh identity and renewed vision, Rethink Robotics continues to push the boundaries of innovation, seamlessly integrating advanced robotics into the workplace. 

Companies never tell you the weaknesses inherent in their products. They refer indirectly to them through touting their updates.

The new robots that will be unveiled at IMTS have been significantly upgraded with improved design, as well as more reliable and robust hardware, resulting in increased precision, speed, and reliability, making them far more capable for industrial applications.

Teasing (I have product information coming soon under embargo):

In addition to an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) and mobile manipulator (MMR) platform, Rethink Robotics will unveil a family of collaborative robots (cobots) designed to reliably handle a range of payloads from 6 to 30 kg. All these products are designed to be better, faster, and stronger than was previously possible across every technical performance indicator. 

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